The Biden administration has warned immigration agents to prepare for “hundreds of thousands of migrant families and asylum claims,” according to a new report released on Friday.
“Border Patrol agents, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and customs officers are stretched thin trying to protect and secure our border,” an unnamed official told The Washington Free Beacon.
“Asking them to process roughly 6,000 people a week will undoubtedly strain already thin resources and increase human trafficking and drug smuggling,” the official added.
The warning comes with the Biden administration’s plan to end Title 42, a provision that allows the U.S. to turn away illegal immigrants at the nation’s southern border due to the risk of their spreading COVID-19.
The Free Beacon’s report also said the administration expects the many new illegal immigrants to become permanent residents.
“All of these people will become permanent residents. There’s no political will from the Biden administration to deport families once they’re already admitted,” the official said.
“The White House knows that. The end of Title 42 will result in de facto open borders.”
The plan to end Title 42 follows several other Biden administration moves reversing former President Donald Trump’s immigration policies and driving the growing number of illegal immigrants crossing the nation’s southern border.
In addition to ending the Trump border wall and most deportations for the first 100 days of his term through executive orders during his first week in office, President Joe Biden ended the Trump Migrant Protection Protocols that required illegal immigrants to remain in Mexico until an asylum hearing.
The news also comes as Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and other Republican senators introduced a bill on Tuesday to extend Title 42.
The Securing the Homeland from International Entrants with Life-threatening Diseases, or SHIELD, Act would continue the public health protections enacted in March 2020, according to Fox News.
During an interview with the outlet on Tuesday morning, Cruz said, “Title 42 has been an integral and extremely successful measure to protect America’s borders and our people during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
He added, “If the Biden-Harris policy for open borders is intended to reverse the Trump administration’s success in securing our border, encourage illegal immigration and create an unprecedented crisis, it’s certainly working.”
Fox News reported Sens. Josh Hawley of Missouri, Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty of Tennessee co-sponsored the bill.
New Mexico Republican Rep. Yvette Herrell will introduce a similar bill in the House, the report said.
According to a June Axios report, the Biden administration wants to eliminate Title 42 by the end of this month.
“Details of internal discussions relayed to Axios show top administration officials have suggested Biden seize the initiative by ending the order, which has been sharply criticized by immigration advocates and many of his fellow Democrats,” the report said.
In addition, it said, “A White House official told Axios it’s ‘a public health decision that will be made ultimately on those grounds,’ adding the administration would not get ahead of any CDC determinations.”
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
